evidence of relationship - de facto

[Lauren82]

Hello,

 

Have just completed our online visa. Now pulling together and attaching documents.

I have been with my partner for nearly 8 years and lived together most of them so we have plenty of evidence to support our de facto relationship, however I am a little confused by what they want to see.

 

The application says refer to the PDF for the 'types of documentation' required.

 

The Pdf has a list of 10 (some quite laborious) types of evidence. However it doesn't say which evidence you must provide, or how many pieces as a minimum.

 

I know the obvious answer would be to provide as much as I can, but to be honest I don't think they'd appreciate that much information, neither could I collate 8 years worth of evidence in 28 days.

 

So from experience, what have you submitted and had accepted?

 

Hope you can help. Thank you.

[Guest DorsetGirl]

Hi,

 

I agree, the list of suggested evidence for proof of de-facto is daunting, but we were successful with the most random collection of documents. It did cause us a few headaches as like many couples, on paper at least, we lead completely separate lives.

 

In the absence of traditional documents (joint mortgage, children's birth certificates, etc.) we discussed the options with the Australian lawyers who were handling our visas and finally submitted things like...

- several years worth of car insurance certificates where we were both named on the policy at the same address

- our individual bank statements to prove we were both living at the same address over a period of time (although we don't have a joint account)

- invoices and delivery notes for purchases made on-line and delivered to the house (again confirming both names at the same address over time even if our names weren't appearing together)

 

I think we finally submitted about five or six documents each. The lawyers didn't come back to us with any queries on these documents and our visas came through without a hitch.

 

I hope this helps and best of luck with digging out the paperwork.

Em

[welsh in oz]

We sent the following stuff from memory (but it was over 2 years ago):

 

Leases from 2 houses we had rented together

Utility bills/insurance in both names

Phone bills with calls to each other highlighted

Bank statements from joint account from past 4 years

Flights and hotel bookings from various holidays

Pensions/life assurance from work in each others names in case of death

Wedding/christening invitations to both of us

Cards from valentines/birthdays to each other

Photos of us at various social events (different hair cuts too in lots which helped show passing of time!)

 

Cant think of other stuff we sent in other than 5 stat decs from friends/family, app forms (obviously) and police/medical checks.

 

Hope this helps

 

Oh - also included a prepaid addressed envelope with a cover letter asking for our stuff back as we sent cards etc that we wanetd back

[Guest GeorgeD]

You don't need to send originals, you can copy cards/photos, even bank statements and sign and date them. You don't even need to get them certified.

 

Try and go as far back as possible, as the longer period of time you provide them evidence the more chance you have of getting the permanent spouse visa rather than the temporary one.

[Lauren82]

Thanks guys.

I have got all that kind of stuff, will spend the weekend scanning and attaching. We have 5 years of joint mortgage statements, bank accounts, insurance, photos, holiday bookings etc.

 

On the other side of the fence does anybody know of anybody who has had any issues getting the de facto relationship approved, and for what reasons? Just thought it might be useful for people reading this to see what passes and what doesn't.

[Peach]

Thankfully, I've only read a handful of posts from people who had their partner visa rejected. The majority of those either hadn't lived together for 12 months (so were immediately rejected), or were borderline 12 months living together and had little in the way of evidence. I remember one couple were rejected because they were living in separate rooms at one of their parents houses - that wasn't considered to living as a defacto.